Impacts of social indicators on assessing the recovery potential of impaired watersheds

Watersheds with lower social indices had lower RPI scores. In the particular watersheds studied, the Socio-Economic subcategory was observed to be the most impactful to the overall recovery potential when compared to the other two social subcategories. As a sensitivity analysis, a “what if” simulation was performed to explore alternatives to upgrade a watershed's social index and, consequently, the relative recovery potential of the watershed to a target level. This analysis is useful for understanding how particular social indicators of a community impact the relative potential for recovering a watershed, beyond just the ecological and stressor conditions. It also sheds light on assessing which social indicators can be improved.